One Impossible Journey
by Obviously not writing
Summary: Libby Maxwell considers herself an ordinary teen, right up until she wakes up in a place that only exists in the world of video games: Azeroth. Stuck in the middle of groups of Horde and Alliance soldiers with no knowledge of either side's language, she makes a surprise ally in the form of a grumpy orc. As they travel, Libby has to ask: even if she can get home, does she want to?
1. Chapter 1

Libby opened her eyes and saw green. Leaves, she realized after a moment. She was looking up at a canopy of leaves high above her. It was a pretty sight, to be sure, thin strands of sunlight filtering through the thickly layered leaves to pierce the purplish gloom underneath, but it made no sense for her to be seeing it.

The last thing she remembered was sitting at her desk, halfheartedly working on a few daily quests in World of Warcraft. She couldn't think of a logical way for that to lead her here, laying on the ground in what seemed to be a forest. She must be dreaming, she decided after a moment's thought. She'd fallen asleep at her desk and now she was dreaming. Hopefully she hadn't run her character off a cliff or something.

Sitting up slowly, she took a moment to look around. She was sitting at the base of an enormous tree, far bigger than anything she'd seen before. Craning her head to look around it, she thought she couldn't reach even a quarter of the way around it with her arms fully outstretched. Similarly sized trees surrounded her in every direction, smaller trees and bushes filling the spaces in between them. It was very realistic for a dream. Libby could feel a small rock digging into the palm of one hand, and bits of cool dirt stuck to her hands when she lifted them up. She could even smell the scent of the forest around her, a mixture of damp earth and leaf mulch. She'd never smelled things in a dream before.

When she stood up, she found that she was wearing the same clothes she had been when she fell asleep - shorts and a t-shirt, both covered by an oversized purple hoodie that hung halfway to her knees. And, most pressingly, no shoes. If her brain was going to stick her into some weird forest, why couldn't it have seen fit to give her shoes? Luckily the ground was fairly soft, covered by a springy mix of grass and moss, but there were still sticks and rocks underneath that, as taking a few steps away from the tree proved.

Now what? There didn't seem to be much point to this dream; normally her dreams were more interesting and a good deal less coherent. She couldn't see anyone else, and the only sounds were the rustle of wind through branches and distant birdsong. Not sure what else to do, she picked a direction and started walking.

As she walked, Libby became increasingly aware that all the sensations she wouldn't have been able to feel in a dream were very present - a stab of pain in her foot from a particularly sharp rock, the texture of clothes against her skin, the sweet scent of a flower that didn't look like anything she'd seen before. Either this was an unnaturally realistic dream, or she was actually somehow in this strange forest full of enormous trees.

The thought made her nervous. If she was actually in a forest there could be wild animals, or something else dangerous. Bugs? Libby wasn't sure what kind of dangers could be found in a forest; the most experience she had with nature was the time her mom signed her up for a week long summer camp at the local park, and that hadn't been a forest so much as a collection of small trees for them to camp in surrounded by neatly trimmed grass. She hadn't seen any animals so far, but she had heard rustles in the bushes as things passed by her. Nothing sounded large enough to be a predator, but she still looked around in worry every time it happened.

She wasn't sure how long she walked, but her feet were starting to get tired and her stomach was grumbling loudly to remind her that the last thing she'd eaten was a bowl of cereal. That had been about three hours before she'd...passed out? Been transported? Whatever had happened to her. Add that to however long she'd been in this forest, and she came to the conclusion that she hadn't eaten for a long while.

There were supposed to be edible plants and things in forests, right? People in books were always eating roots or berries or whatever when they traveled through the woods. She hadn't seen anything that looked like a berry so far, and wasn't sure how to figure out which roots were edible. Just grabbing and eating a random plant seemed like a bad idea. Maybe she'd come across other people soon, and she could ask them for food and figure out where she was.

The sky was slowly darkening above her, the thin shafts of sunlight disappearing and plunging her into a deep gloom. The thick leaf canopy meant that very little light reached her from the moon she assumed must be rising soon. She wasn't sure when it happened, but eventually she realized that she could hardly see her hand in front of her face and stopped walking abruptly. While she didn't actually have a destination in mind, she wouldn't get anywhere if she walked in circles in the dark. Not to mention she had no idea what the terrain was like here, and she didn't want to stumble into a river or off a cliff. The terrain had been even enough so far, sloping gently downward, but that didn't mean it wouldn't change.

Everything around her looked pretty much the same: big trees, small trees, bushes. Nothing that seemed like it would make a good shelter, but it wasn't too cold here; it felt like a mild spring day. Hopefully that wouldn't change as the night drew on. Moving carefully to avoid running into anything in the dark, she made her way close to the nearest tree, reasoning that the branches would probably keep water off her if it started to rain. The roots of the tree, thicker than both her arms held together, protruded from the ground to form small arches. She wiggled between two of them, finding a space against the tree that would fit her and hopefully keep her hidden from any nasty animals that wandered by.

It wasn't the most comfortable place she'd ever slept. Something always seemed to be digging into her back no matter how she positioned herself, and she wasn't sure if the occasional tickles on her skin were actually bugs or figments of her imagination. Eventually, though, she managed to drift off, comforting herself with the thought that she would probably wake up at her desk and realize that this had all been a really weird dream.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be wrong. She woke up exactly where she'd fallen asleep, muscles stiff from sleeping on the hard ground and stomach grumbling loudly enough that she feared everything for miles around must be able to hear it. Any remaining hope that this was a particularly vivid dream quickly faded. She scrambled out of her little sleeping hollow and stretched, wincing a little at the series of pops and cracks made by various joints as she did so.

She looked around, trying to orient herself, and decided to continue walking downhill. Water was supposed to gather in downhill places, right? That sounded like something she'd learned at some point. Her mouth felt drier than a desert, and she knew that without water she wouldn't last long out here. If she found water, she might also be able to follow it to somewhere with people who could help her get home.

Her continuing walk was even more uncomfortable than yesterday. Her bare feet ached from the exercise and stung from stepping on rocks and sticks, and her spine was making its disapproval of her makeshift sleeping place quite obvious. She passed the time trying to figure out where she was based on the type of trees, but she'd never heard of such large trees that weren't redwoods.

Maybe an hour later, she spotted a slight gap in the canopy ahead. Peering through the underbrush in that area, she saw something she thought might be a path. Relieved, she hurried forward, pushing past a clump of branches that blocked her view of the area - and nearly bumped into someone.

She backed up a few steps and felt her mind short out as she tried to figure out what she was looking at. Green skin, mail armor covered by a red tabard, fierce looking tusks protruding from a snarling mouth. She'd play enough WoW to recognize those characteristics, but they were even more impossible than waking up in a random forest after falling asleep at her desk.

Libby was standing face to face with an orc.


	2. Chapter 2

**Words in italics are English while regular text is Orcish or Common. For the purposes of this story, Common and English are two different languages.**

Ashenvale was not a safe place for an orc traveling alone, especially not an injured one. Bargul kept a keen eye on his surroundings as he traveled, alert for the slightest hint of an Alliance party. He was nearing the border to Azshara, but that was no reason to let his guard down. He'd seen enough skirmishes on previous trips through the area to know that he wouldn't truly be safe until he was back within Orgrimmar's walls.

Beneath him his wolf mount, Kalu, suddenly turned her head to stare into the trees lining the road, ears up and nose twitching. Bargul signaled for her to stop walking and turned as well, peering intently at the shadowed underbrush. He went to reach for his twin axes - and was reminded again of his left arm, now missing below the elbow. He spat a curse at the reminder and pulled a single axe from his belt before sliding from Kalu's back.

He stepped quietly toward the trees, able to hear now the clear sound of someone moving through them. Whoever it was made no attempt to keep quiet; either they didn't know he was here, or they were trying to get his attention. Well, if they were looking for a fight, they were welcome to one. The orc lifted his axe and took another step closer, only for the small figure that pushed her way through the branches to almost walk into him.

It was a human, he was as she jumped back in shock, dressed in a strangely tailored purple jacket that covered whatever else she might have been wearing. She didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, so he lowered his axe but didn't drop his threatening stance just yet.

"Are you alone?" He asked in awkward Common.

She stared blankly at him, then said something in a language he didn't recognize. " _I don't understand. Do you speak English?_ "

"You...talk Common?" Bargul asked slowly. He was reaching the end of his Common vocabulary, which mostly consisted of threats and ways to demand surrender. Not that Common was very useful in this situation, apparently. What kind of human didn't speak Common?

" _I'll take that as a no, I guess._ " The human stopped for a moment, seemingly thinking. Then she pointed to herself. " _Libby. Li-bby._ " She pointed at him and raised her eyebrows as though asking a question.

He gathered that she was trying to exchange names, although he wasn't sure why. He didn't answer right away, taking the moment to study her more closely instead. This was obviously no warrior, he decided. In fact, she looked younger than most humans he'd seen on the battlefield. She was soft-faced, and although her jacket obscured some of her form, there was obviously little bulk there. An apprentice mage, perhaps? But again he came to the question of why she couldn't understand Common.

As he stared at her without answering, she seemed to droop slightly, letting her hand drop again. He sighed heavily and said, "Bargul."

"Bargul?" She repeated, the rough syllables awkward on her tongue.

"I am Bargul," he said in Orcish.

She tilted her head and squinted her eyes at him for a moment before speaking. "Iam...Libby?" She said uncertainly, the phrase turning up into a question.

"Yes," Bargul said, surprised. He shook it off and tried another question. "Why are you here?" He asked, trying to use gestures to get his point across.

She shrugged and shook her head, but it seemed to be an answer rather than her not understanding his question. "Here?"

"Ashenvale," he told her. She seemed to recognize the name and gained a slightly panicked look. Maybe she was lost?

He tried to figure out what to do about her. The easiest thing to do would be to drop her off at one of the Alliance outposts in the area and continue on his way, but he didn't like the idea of being shot full of arrows before he could explain himself - well, no. The _easiest_ thing would be to leave her here and move on, but for some reason the idea rubbed him the wrong way. She seemed young and lost and he didn't like the idea of leaving her to fend for herself.

Ratchet was the nearest neutral town, a little over a week to the south. It was completely the opposite way from where he was headed, but going home could wait a little while. He nodded to himself, mind made up. Ships ran between Ratchet and Stranglethorn; he could send her on her way there, where she would be more likely to find her own people, and then return to Orgrimmar.

"Libby." The girl, who had been peering around him to look at Kalu, snapped her attention back to him. He gestured as he spoke, doing his best to get his point across. "Do you want me to take you to Ratchet? You can find other humans."

"Ratchet," she repeated. For some reason she seemed to recognize place names, but not anything else. She nodded. " _Sure. It's not like I have anywhere else to be._ "

"Come with me," he said, beckoning, and turned to lead her back to Kalu.

 **Sorry about the short chapter. This one's fighting me a bit, so I'm going to upload what I have now instead of making you wait longer.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Since this chapter is Libby's POV, italics will be Orcish and regular text will be English.**

Libby wasn't sure why the orc - Bargul, he'd said his name was - wanted to bring her to Ratchet, but once she thought about it, it seemed like a good idea. Seeing as this was apparently _really_ Azeroth, which was still really strange to think, that meant there were magic users in this world. She'd never played a mage, since she preferred melee characters, but she knew they had access to all sorts of teleport spells. Since it was possible in the game to transport a character between Outland and Azeroth, it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine that one could send her home as well. Right?

Of course, that all assumed she was understanding Bargul correctly. She wasn't sure why she could understand the place names and nothing else, but it was better than being completely lost. This whole time she'd been assuming she would be able to understand any people she came across, but she obviously didn't know Orcish, and based on the difference in the sounds, she suspected that he'd tried to speak Common to her as well. Which was a problem; how could she ask someone to send her home if they didn't understand her?

She could think about this later, she told herself. Bargul had paused next to his wolf and was looking back at her impatiently, so she set aside her worries for later and trotted after him.

" _This is Kalu,_ " he said when she caught up to him, pointing at the wolf. " _Kalu_."

Libby gathered that Kalu was either the name of the wolf or the Orcish word for wolf, and she wasn't sure how to figure it out. She settled for smiling at the wolf and reaching out a tentative hand for it to sniff. Possibly-Kalu looked at her and started growling softly but insistently. Libby beat a hasty retreat, putting Bargul between herself and the wolf. Kalu was huge, although Libby wasn't sure how it compared to the wolves on Earth, and its teeth were sharp and nasty looking. She did _not_ want to upset it.

Bargul said something in Orcish, too fast for her to follow, but it made Kalu stop growling. He turned to look at Libby, speaking in the slower way he used to address her. " _Libby, go ahead. Kalu's fine now._ " He gestured her towards the wolf.

"Nope," Libby said, shaking her head firmly to make sure he got the message. "I'll stay back here, thanks. I like having hands."

" _Yes,_ " he insisted, nodding just as firmly. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her around in front of him. " _Like this._ "

He released her in order to hold his hand out to the wolf, making her notice for the first time that one of his arms was missing. He stared at her firmly and waited, so she bit her lip and slowly extended a hand toward it as well, hoping she wasn't about to become wolf food. But Kalu simply leaned its head forward to sniff her offered hand, huffing warm air over the slightly curled fingers. Then, inspection complete, the wolf seemed to lose interest and turned away. Libby let out a quiet sigh of relief, earning a disapproving stare from Bargul.

He looked at her intently for a moment, looked over at the wolf, and seemed to come to a decision. " _Come here_ ," he said, making a beckoning gesture and moving to stand at the wolf's side.

Giving Kalu one more distrustful look, Libby edged around to join him. He rolled his eyes. " _Don't be so scared. You're going to have to deal with her a lot, so get used to it._ " Libby had no idea what any of that meant, but before she could try to figure it out he was lifting her onto the wolf's back like she was a child, driving the matter firmly from her mind as she tried not to freak out. She'd never even ridden a horse before, and horses were a lot less likely to tear her throat out if she did something she didn't like.

Libby sat stiffly, not sure where to hold on, as Bargul swung himself up behind her. The movement spoke of lots of practice with this sort of thing, and he seemed perfectly comfortable sitting on the wolf's back. That was right, wolves were the standard mount for orcs. Great.

" _Hold on,_ " he said, reaching around her to grab the reins laying loosely across the Kalu's shoulders.

With a twitch of his hand he urged Kalu into a walk. Although it was somewhat slow, the unexpected movement made Libby jolt and almost lose her balance. She cast around for something to hold onto and settled for holding onto the slightly upturned front of the saddle worn by the wolf now plodding peacefully along.

The ride wasn't awful once she had some time to get accustomed to it. The wolf's gait was fairly even and didn't jostle her too much, and Libby eventually let herself relax, loosening her death grip on the edge of the saddle.

As they rode, Bargul pointed out and named in Orcish the various things they passed – mainly trees, rocks, and various kinds of plants. There wasn't much variety in the things they saw, so he eventually ran out of things to explain and lapsed into silence. Libby stared into the area around her and mentally practiced naming what she saw. She was getting pretty good at saying _tree_ in Orcish. That would be a useful skill to get her home, she thought sarcastically.

Having two people in a saddle meant for one, even if the other person was as small as Libby, did start feeling uncomfortably squished after a while. An few hours after they had started, Bargul stopped Kalu long enough to dismount.

" _Do you want to walk?_ " He pointed at the ground, so she assumed he was asking her to get off the wolf.

" _Yes_ ," she said, ungracefully clambering down after him. She'd figured out that word quickly enough.

Stretching her legs felt nice after the long ride, although her muscles were unexpectedly sore despite the fact that she hadn't done much. The road was mostly made of worn stones, cool and smooth under her feet, so she didn't have much trouble keeping up with Bargul and Kalu despite her lack of shoes. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her suddenly that she still hadn't eaten.

"Bargul?" She asked. He turned to look at her and she motioned toward her mouth, trying to mime eating. "Um. Food? Do you have any?"

" _You want food?_ " He repeated her eating motion.

" _Wantfood? Yes,_ " she said, guessing that he'd said something about food.

" _No, do you. Want. Food?_ " He repeated the sentence, this time slower and with gestures to match.

"Oh. " _Yes, want food,_ " she agreed.

He looked in one of the packs tied behind Kalu's saddle, neither of them slowing their pace. A moment later, he resurfaced with a chunk of bread and what looked like dried meat, along with a water skin.

He offered her the water first, but pulled it away when Libby reached for it. She frowned, confused.

" _Water_ ," he said, shaking the water skin as he did.

" _Water,_ " she repeated, and he rewarded her by handing it to her.

The water tasted better than she ever remembered water tasting, even warm and with a weird leathery taste. She drank deeply, not having realized how dry her mouth was until that moment. After a moment she handed it back to him, and he took a turn drinking. They repeated the process with each food item. He told her what it was called and gave it to her when she said it properly. After she finished, he took a share for himself, eating as they walked.

Eventually her legs grew tired – they'd been walking for much longer than she was used to – and she stumbled her way through a conversation with Bargul until he understood and stopped Kalu so she could get on again.

He walked for a little while longer before joining her. As they rode, Kalu's rocking gait and her comfortably full stomach joined forces with her tired muscles, causing her to drift off leaning over the wolf's furry neck.


	4. Chapter 4

**Back to Bargul, so English will be in italics. Hope you enjoy!**

As a traveling companion, the strange human wasn't awful. She didn't lag too badly when she walked, and had given up protesting about riding Kalu despite her obvious nervousness about the wolf. He found that somewhat amusing, when he wasn't annoyed about her slowing things down by being afraid to ride. Kalu was fairly small as far as riding wolves went, the top of her head even with that of an ordinary human, although that put her several inches above Libby, who was unusually small as well. He had yet to figure out if she was younger than she sounded or simply very small, but whatever the answer was, it didn't matter as long as she could keep up.

She had woken up again a few hours ago and was sitting up somewhat stiffly on Kalu's back, peering curiously at the forest around them. He'd tried to teach her a few words, mostly out of boredom, and it seemed that she was picking them up quickly. That was good; if he had to have a human companion, he preferred it to be one he could communicate with.

Bargul was walking again, both to save Kalu's strength and because it was more comfortable. The human was small, but not small enough to make riding together for long periods of time a pleasant experience. On top of that, she seemed to have no idea how to move with Kalu's gait; she was such an unskilled rider that he wondered if she'd ridden anything in her life.

It was starting to get dark, or at least, darker than it normally was in this damn forest. He couldn't wait to be back in the deserts of Durotar. Even the Barrens would be a welcome relief after so much time under these trees. He'd been stationed here for almost a year before his injury, participating in skirmishes until the one that lost him his arm, and if he never saw another forest he would be content with that.

Looking up at the sky in a mostly useless attempt to gauge the sun's position, he decided that it was a good time to stop for the night. They were making good time so far. Checking his map, he estimated that they would pass Splintertree post tomorrow, and be in the Barrens the day after that if they kept up this pace. Whistling for Kalu to follow, he stepped off the path, heading for a open area a short way back from the road.

" _Where are we going?_ " Libby asked.

"It's time to sleep," he told her, briefly turning to make the standard 'sleep' gesture with his hands folded next to his cheek.

"Yes," she said, sounding relieved.

As soon as Kalu stopped moving, she dismounted with an ungraceful stumble, almost landing flat on her face before catching herself with a handful of Kalu's fur. Kalu shifted irritably, not happy with having her fur pulled, and Libby let go as though the wolf had burst into flames. Bargul snorted to himself before quickly returning to a straight face when Libby looked at him.

They'd need a fire first, he decided. He reached down to pick a stick off the ground and showed it to her. "This is a stick," he said. Talking to her like a child was getting somewhat tiresome, but it was necessary if he wanted her to understand him.

"Stick," she repeated, sounding slightly confused.

"You go find some sticks and bring them back here," Bargul instructed, doing his best to get the point across with gestures. He watched as she puzzled that over for a moment before nodding. He handed her the stick, and she started scanning the ground in the clearing for more.

After instructing Kalu to guard the campsite, he went to chop some larger logs to keep the fire burning longer. That was one good thing about the night elven obsession with trees - he was never short of firewood, although it did come with the slight danger that the trees might hit back when he tried to fell them. There were no treants here, though, so it wasn't long before he returned to the campsite with a nicely sized bundle of wood.

While he'd been gone, Libby had gathered a small pile of sticks near the center of the clearing. Bargul dropped his stack of firewood next to it. "Good."

He got to work building up the campfire while she watched curiously, and before long he had a small but cheerful fire crackling pleasantly, the remaining sticks and logs stacked a short distance away in case it burned too low. He retrieved a cooking pot and a bundle of ingredients from a pack attached to Kalu's saddle. The ingredients had been a parting gift from his party's cook, a cheerful troll woman with a gift for creating delicious meals from almost anything. The bundle contained pre-chopped vegetables, packets with herbs, and chunks of meat that could be cooked together into a stew. It was running low now, but there was enough for one more pot of it before he'd have to return to more standard travel rations.

While that cooked, he left Libby to watch it, assuming that she would at least know what burning food looked like, and went to tend to Kalu. He removed the saddle and the packs attached to it to make her more comfortable and poured some water into a bowl for her to drink. Once she had drunk her fill, he poured out the remainder, dried the bowl, and returned it his pack before giving her her dinner.

Once his wolf had been seen to, Bargul moved on to setting up beds for himself and the human girl. He only had one bedroll, so he used a few spare blankets to create a makeshift bed for her. With those set up, he went to check on the stew. A small taste told him that it was ready, so he portioned out two bowls, giving one to Libby and taking the other for himself.

"That's stew," he told her as they sat down, pointing with his spoon at the contents of her bowl.

She looked at it warily for a moment, looked up at where Bargul was devouring his own serving, and took a small bite. Her eyes widened and she grinned. " _Wow, that's really good._ Good...stew," she added in orcish, and began to devour hers with equal speed.

Once they finished with their dinner, he pointed out which set of bedding was hers before dropping onto his own. With only two of them, and one with likely no experience camping in potentially hostile territory, it wasn't feasible for them to keep watch. Bargul would just have to hope that his tendency to sleep lightly, along with Kalu's sharp senses, would alert him if anyone drew near while they slept.


	5. Chapter 5

**You're all smart, I'm sure you've figured out the pattern by now. Italics = orcish.**

Libby had never really considered the possibility of being trapped in another world, but if she had, she would have pictured more excitement than this. That's how it always went in books; there was always some big villain to defeat, and lots of exciting fight scenes and mysterious riddles and so on. At the very least, she should have met a generic but good looking love interest by now. She hadn't exactly expected being trapped in video game land to be boring, but so far it had mostly consisted of a lot of traveling.

Distances had apparently been fudged a lot in the game compared to the real thing. From what she remembered, crossing Ashenvale on a mount took only a couple minutes, but she and Bargul had been riding for almost a day and a half and hadn't even reached the turnoff to the Barrens. There wasn't much to do along the way. Occasionally Bargul would continue his attempts to teach her Orcish, but he usually seemed to get frustrated by her lack of knowledge after a few minutes. When that happened, he'd usually fall into a grumpy silence, or ignore her in favor of talking to his wolf.

A little while after lunch, the trees on one side of the road disappeared into a clearing that backed up against a half circle of tall cliffs. A crude fence of sharpened logs blocked access into the sort of valley created by the cliffs. Two tall wooden towers were visible above the wall. Unless architecture styles were radically different in this Azeroth, this was probably a Horde settlement of some kind. She leaned forward eagerly as it came into view, trying to get a better look at it. As she did so, the wolf stopped walking, and she turned to look over her shoulder at Bargul in confusion.

He was scowling, although she was starting to think that was his default expression rather than a sign of anger. " _I'm going to leave you here with Kalu. Try not to die while I'm gone._ "

" _What?_ " Libby replied intelligently.

" _Stay here_ ," he said, motioning like he was telling a dog to stay.

She nodded, and he backed Kalu off the path until the trees partially obscured the structures. Dismounting, he shouldered one of the bags from the wolf's back, repeated the order to stay along with a few extra words to Kalu, and began to walk briskly toward the settlement. Libby watched him go, remaining in her place on the back of his wolf. She was reasonably certain that Kalu wouldn't eat her while he was around, but she wasn't sure if she trusted the wolf when they were alone, so being on its back seemed like a safe place to not get eaten.

Tapping her fingers idly on the front of the saddle, she wondered how long this would take. Since his bags and his wolf were here too, he probably wasn't abandoning her in the forest to die or whatever. It didn't seem like he was going to turn her over to his Horde buddies, since he had left her here; also, if he wanted to do that he could have just taken her with him by force instead of being...almost nice, in a kind of gruff way. Maybe he wanted to buy supplies. Based on how long it had taken them to get this far, Ratchet and the Barrens must be a long way away still.

It was hard to tell how much time was passing, since she didn't have a watch and wouldn't have been able to tell time by the sun even if she could see it clearly. It felt like a long time, but that could just be because she was bored. At least when they had been moving there was a sense of accomplishing something even if the scenery around them looked mostly the same everywhere. Now, she was just sitting.

After a while she decided that finding a more comfortable seat was worth the possible risk of getting down from Kālu's back. She dismounted somewhat clumsily and moved over to sit with her back against a nearby tree. The ground was kind of hard, but it made a more comfortable place to sit than the saddle she'd been in for about half the day so far. Her muscles were loudly protesting the unusual activity she'd been doing for the past two days. Who knew riding a wolf counted as exercise?

Libby was fiddling with one of the several colorful friendship bracelets wrapped around her wrists and considering whether she would be able to fall asleep here when she heard footsteps approaching. She looked up, trying to figure out if it was someone she should be concerned about. Kalu perked up, but didn't seem alarmed, so Libby decided to stay where she was. A moment later, she spotted Bargul approaching through the trees.

He was holding what looked like a bundle of cloth, which he tossed onto her lap when he approached her. " _These are for you._ "

Pawing through the bundle, she found out that it was actually clothing. She looked up at him and spread her hands in a questioning gesture. "What are these for?"

" _They're clothes,_ " he said, tugging at the sleeve of his shirt.

She rolled her eyes at him. " _I know clothes,_ " she said, attempting to use some of her new vocabulary. Bargul didn't look very impressed by it.

He gestured at her outfit. " _That will attract attention if we meet others. You need to dress more normally, go put those on._ " He made a shooing gesture at her.

Libby recognized only a few of the words he said, but it seemed logical to assume that he wanted her to get dressed. She looked around and found a large tree to duck behind, then began trying to change into her new outfit. The pile contained a simple shirt and pants, only a little too large for her, along with a cloak, socks, and boots. She put those on with a sigh of relief. They were a touch too big, but with the socks she could wear them comfortably enough. As she tried to figure out how the fastenings on the cloak worked, she took a moment to wonder where he'd found clothes her size. Maybe there were blood elves in the Horde outpost? They looked more human sized than most of the other Horde races except the Forsaken, who seemed to favor clothes that had been dug out of the grave with them, and these seemed too clean for that.

She bundled up her hoodie with her other clothes and returned to where Bargul was waiting. He'd apparently been talking to Kalu, smiling contentedly as he ran his hand through its fur, but when Libby reappeared he quickly straightened up and tried to look like he hadn't been doing anything. She swallowed down a laugh and held up her other clothes, not sure what to do with them.

" _In there_ ," he said, pointing at one of his bags. She stuffed them in, sighing to herself when she realized that they would probably have more traveling to do.

How fun.


	6. Chapter 6

**We're going to switch up the pattern here - this is a Libby chapter again. Italics = orcish**

Libby's dreams that night were strange and unsettling, although she wouldn't have been able to explain why they were unsettling if anyone had asked. She woke up feeling as exhausted as she had been when she went to sleep, mind still fogged with confusing half-remembered images of bright light that both comforted and burned. The warmth of it lingered when she awoke, leaving her feeling almost feverish for a minute or two before it faded, despite the morning chill that the remains of last night's fire weren't doing much to chase away.

" _Here._ " Bargul's rough voice sounded nearby, and she turned to accept the bread and cheese that he was offering her as breakfast, shaking her head to clear out the clinging remains of the dream.

They ate in silence; Bargul was apparently not much of a conversationalist in the morning, which shouldn't surprise her considering how little he talked in general. Once they were done, she tried to help him clean up their camp. This involved several misunderstandings and a good amount of exasperation on his part, although not as much as it had yesterday. She seemed to be getting a bit better at understanding him as time went on.

It got done eventually, and then it was back on the road for them. There wasn't much for Libby to look at as they rode, since by this point she was pretty sick of seeing trees everywhere. She fiddled with her bracelets, rubbing her fingers over the soft string and retying the ones that were coming loose. They were technically friendship bracelets, but she wasn't sure if that description was accurate since she just made them for herself when she was bored at home. There were several on each wrist, all knotted from brightly colored string, each one a different pattern.

As she used her teeth to tighten the knot on a broader bracelet with a random pattern of neon rainbow thread, she wondered what she would be doing if she was at home right now. Playing WoW, probably, since that was one of her most common pastimes. Or maybe she'd be stressing over SAT practice and colleges and all that other junk that came with preparing to be a high school senior. When she thought about it like that, a never-ending parade of trees in some weird alternate reality sounded pretty pleasant in comparison. It wasn't like she disliked her life on Earth...but she wasn't super attached to it either, she was coming to realize. She wasn't as desperate to get back as she would have thought; maybe she could just enjoy this crazy fantasy-world vacation while it lasted.

Although, she thought as she watched yet another identical giant tree slowly pass by, she might enjoy it a little more if there was something to look at besides this endless forests. Hopefully the Barrens would be a little more interesting. She hadn't spent much time there in game, but it probably wouldn't have mattered if she had, based on how different everything seemed to be from its in-game counterpart so far.

When they stopped for lunch, Libby dismounted gratefully and paced in a large circle to stretch her legs. Behind her, Bargul was talking softly to Kalu as he got out some food. She probably shouldn't be hearing that, she thought with a smile as she listened to the unmistakable sappy tones used by someone talking to a beloved pet. As she thought this, a shaft of light hit her eyes, bright enough to make her blink away spots after it faded. They must be getting close to the edge of this place, if the sun was breaking through the trees like that. Somewhat cheered by that, she returned to the orc and his wolf to see about getting herself some lunch.

" _You're going to get fat if I keep giving you treats, Kalu. Then how will you help me in battle?_ " There was a pause. " _Okay, alright, just one more._ "

Libby laughed to herself. She only understood about two thirds of the sentence, but that was enough to figure out what was going on. This fierce, battle-scarred orc was doting on his wolf like it was a tiny, cute puppy. Then she paused, laugh freezing in her throat as she realized something. Those words she'd recognized weren't ones she'd been taught so far. She shouldn't have understood what they meant. Learning a language unexpectedly fast was one thing, but she was pretty sure that even if she was skilled at learning languages, there was no reason for her to just spontaneously know words.

" _Libby, food._ " Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she saw that Bargul had finished talking to Kalu and was now holding out some food for her. She wasn't sure what face she was making right now, but his standard scowl had morphed into something a little more concerned.

" _Yes. Thank you,_ " she said, accepting it from him with a halfhearted smile. It wasn't very interesting food, mainly dried meat and a piece of chewy bread, but she ate it without paying much attention to the taste. Her mind was still fixed on wondering about the random burst of understanding from earlier.

At least if those kept up she wouldn't have as hard a time finding someone who might be able to help her get home. She resolved to try and convince Bargul to talk to her more, so she could see if it had been a one time thing or, if it wasn't, how much she could understand now.

That was definitely easier said than done, though. Every so often she'd try to make a remark or ask a question, stumbling over rough syllables that she may or may not have been supposed to know, but Bargul didn't seem very interested in conversation. He'd answer questions and sometimes correct her when she said something wrong, but he did so in as few words as he could manage. Nevertheless, the exercise did serve to confirm that she could still understand, and apparently use, more words than she should have logically been able to, which was nice. Baffling, but nice.

The road split an hour or two after their lunch break, one path continuing in the direction they'd been going so far and the other turning a sharp right angle to the left. In the time it took them to reach this spot, Bargul had said maybe three dozen words in response to Libby's uncertain Orcish chatter, which occasionally slipped back to English when she wanted to be more sarcastic than she knew how to communicate in Orcish.

They took the left fork, and as they rode the air seemed to get warmer by a few degrees. The trees thinned out a little as well, changing from enormous to simply large, with more breaks in the canopy as they grew further apart. Patches of sunlight fell over them every now and then, although Libby managed to avoid getting it in her eyes again. Eventually it began to get dark, but Bargul pushed on rather than stopping for the night. The reason became clear when they approached another barrier of wooden stakes, this one forming a wall across the road where it passed a gap in the mountain range bordering Ashenvale. A few Horde guards stood watch, and although there was no ongoing battle at the moment like there was in the game, Libby recognized this spot.

This was, finally, the entrance to the Barrens.

 **I'm really sorry about how long this update took. Some real life stuff has been making it hard for me to get in a writing mood, but I promise I won't abandon this story. Also, yes, the language thing seems weird, but don't worry, it's part of the plot and will be explained eventually.**


	7. Chapter 7

**For now it's back to the regular schedule of alternating POV, so here's our favorite grumpy orc. Also, it's been forever since I visited the Barrens in game so I apologize for any inaccuracies.**

The entrance to the Barrens was never the most heavily guarded place, rarely occupied by more than a dozen soldiers. There were only two standing at the gate right now, with another just visible on the other side, but that was still enough to cause a problem. Alliance members were very much not welcome in this part of the Barrens, and even if Libby didn't seem like any human he'd ever seen, she was still obviously a human, something the guards wouldn't be inclined to look past. The fact that Bargul was accompanying her probably wouldn't help in this situation; it would most likely just lead to more questions, which he wasn't sure he had the answer to.

For now they were still far enough away that the guards couldn't have gotten a good look at him or his passenger, which gave him a moment to figure out a plan. Libby was small enough that she could possibly pass for an elf, as long as no one tried to talk to her or look at her eyes. Not bothering to slow Kalu from her slow walk, he dismounted so that he could get a better look at the human child.

"Put your hood up," he said, reaching over to swat at the hood of her new cloak to indicate what he was talking about.

She seemed to understand that easily enough, pulling the hood over her face so that it was partly shadowed. Like the rest of her outfit, the cloak was somewhat large on her, so the hood obscured her face fairly well once he'd tugged it a little farther forward. The only issue was the lack of green glow issuing from the shadows, but he had an idea for that.

"When we reach the guards, you act like you're asleep," he instructed. That seemed a little too complicated, and he tried to think of a way to simplify the phrasing of it.

She tilted her head and nodded slowly before he could think of another way to phrase it. "Yes, that's good." Her pronunciation was still not great, but it had improved a little. Huddling deeper into her cloak, she let her head droop forward in a passable imitation of someone trying to sleep while riding. That solved the problem of her non-glowing eyes, at least, and also gave her an excuse not to answer if anyone addressed her.

Bargul put his hand on Kalu's side to guide her as they approached the gate, glancing over every so often to make sure Libby was still feigning sleep. He didn't expect them to be examined too thoroughly, but it was better to be safe just in case.

"Hello," one of the guards, a tauren woman with black fur, called out.

He raised his shortened arm and returned her greeting, only slowing slightly as he reached the gate.

"Bargul?" she asked, sounding surprised. He looked at her face more closely and recognized Mika Proudwind. They'd become acquainted while serving as grunts together, but he hadn't spoken to her for the better part of a year. "You're looking a bit worse than the last time I saw you."

"And you're exactly as much of a charmer as I remember, Mika," he replied, signaling Kalu to stop while he turned to speak to the tauren.

She laughed, loud and exuberant, and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Where are you going? I thought you were stationed in Ashenvale still."

"Had to escort a mage," he lied, gesturing to Libby. "You know how elves are - never want to get their pretty robes dirty in battle. Apparently this one's on an important mission or something. "

"Ah, that makes sense. Know what the mission is?"

Bargul shrugged dismissively. "I wasn't really listening. Something about Draenor, I think."

"Of course you weren't." Mika gave his shoulder a small shake "Huh, wish I was in Draenor instead of slumming it here. Who exactly is going to sneak into the Barrens?"

"I wouldn't expect anyone to," he said, trying to sound amused. "I should probably get going; the mage will want to be farther along by the time she wakes up, probably. I'll write you when I'm back in Orgrimmar?"

"You better! No more seven month silences from you, my friend. Good luck with your elf."

"Thank you." They exchanged their goodbyes, and Kalu waved for several moments as he walked away.

Once they were far enough away that she couldn't be clearly seen, Libby sat up and pushed back the hood of her cloak. The air was already warming, although it was still cool compared to the more southern regions of the Barrens, and the cloak couldn't have been helpful with that. Her cheeks were turning pink, and her hair had become rather tousled.

"Warm," she said, sounding disgusted. She unclasped the cloak and swept it from her shoulders, folding it and laying it across Kalu's back in front of her. "Ugh."

"It will only get worse from here," he warned her.

Her only response to that was to tip her head back and say "Ughhhh" again, this time louder and more drawn out. Once she'd finished that, she shifted in the saddle to look at him. "Mage? You speak I'm a mage?"

"Say," he corrected automatically. "Say you're a mage. And yes, I did."

She seemed very amused by that, flicking her fingers at him in a motion that vaguely resembled casting. "I'm a mage, yes."

He snorted out a hint of a laugh despite himself. Trying to hide it with a cough, he collected himself quickly and cast around for a subject change. A mostly bare tree near the road caught his eye, and he pointed at it. "Name that, little mage."

"That's a stick," she replied, smiling at him.

"Very funny."

 **I'm not dead! ...Surprise? I'm super sorry about the long wait. Again, I promise I won't abandon this, but studying for the SAT kind of took up all my time for a while there. On the plus side, I think I've got a few of the next plot points more fleshed out now. Hopefully I'll see you soon with another update.**


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